Grading the top farm systems

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Dayn Perry / FOXSports.com Posted: 4 hours ago

As you've probably noticed, for the last several weeks we've been counting down our list of the top 100 prospects in baseball. Top 100 prospects for 2006 ... Dayn Perry is counting down the Top 100 youngsters in the game. Check back weekly as we get closer to No. 1. Prospects No. 1-10 Prospects No. 11-20 Prospects No. 21-30 Prospects No. 31-40 Prospects No. 41-50 Prospects No. 51-60 Prospects No. 61-70 Prospects No. 71-80 Prospects No. 81-90 Prospects No. 91-100 Last week, we wrapped it up by bestowing top honors upon outfielder Delmon Young of the Devil Rays. This time around, we'll put the finishing touches on the prospect countdown by taking a look at the systems as a whole and how they've graded out. While evaluating systems based on the top 100 prospects in all of baseball leaves out a few key elements (namely, the depth of a particular system), it will provide a decent thumbnail idea of which organization's minor league corps is the best. For starters, let's rank each system based on how many prospects they placed in the top 100: As you can see, the Dodgers stand above the fray in this regard, and the D-Backs and Marlins are right behind them with eight prospects each among the top 100. The Jays, Cards, Mets, Reds, Rockies and White Sox, meanwhile, have not a single prospect in the top 100. Top 100 prospects per team Team Prospects Dodgers 9 D-Backs, Marlins 8 Indians 7 Angels 6 Brewers, Cubs 5 Pirates, Red Sox, Twins 4 Braves, Mariners, Orioles, Padres, Rangers, Royals 3 A's, Astros, Devil Rays, Giants, Nationals, Phillies, Tigers, Yankees 2 Blue Jays, Cardinals, Mets, Reds, Rockies, White Sox 1 While depth is important, it's also vital to have at least a handful of top-shelf young players in the system. Those with two or fewer in the top 100 don't have as many premium prospects as they should. Those with five or more, on the other hand, are in good shape in terms of high-end talent. Let's switch gears a bit and bring prospect ranking into the calculations. To do this, we'll devise a quick-and-dirty point system for the top 100. And I do mean "quick-and-dirty." We'll award 100 points for the top spot in rankings, 99 for the second spot, 98 for the third sport and so forth, all the way down to one point for the 100th-ranked prospect. Below, we ranked the organizations based on their point total for each prospect in the top 100. Here's the results: Prospect rankings by team Ranking Team Points 1. Diamondbacks 529 2. Dodgers 462 3. Marlins 391 4. Angels 335 5. Indians 278 6. Red Sox 255 7. Royals 238 8. Pirates 215 9. Brewers 199 10. Twins 172 11. Mariners 171 12. Cubs 144 13. Nationals 143 14. Tigers 139 15. Orioles 132 16. Phillies 130 17. Braves 118 18. Yankees 117 19. Devil Rays 116 20. Padres 111 21. Rangers 96 22. A's 88 23. Rockies 87 24. Mets 85 T-25. Cardinals, Giants 83 27. White Sox 64 28. Blue Jays 37 29. Astros 22 30. Reds 10 As you can see, in the point system, the Diamondbacks leapfrog the Dodgers into the top spot. Other observations: NL Central clubs occupy three of the bottom five spots. That's good news for the Brewers, who rank in the top 10 and have young talents like Rickie Weeks and J.J. Hardy already in Milwaukee. Don't be fooled by the D-Rays' modest ranking. A number of talented youngsters — B.J. Upton, Scott Kazmir, Carl Crawford, Rocco Baldelli and Jonny Gomes — have already exhausted their rookie status and thus were ineligible for the top 100. If you expand it to pre-arbitration-eligible talent, the Rays have the best system in the AL. Speaking of players who had previously exhausted their rookie status, Mariners right-hander Felix Hernandez, were he still a prospect, would've been a ridiculously easy choice for No. 1. As profoundly impressive as Arizona's prospects already are, keep in mind that they'll enjoy the 11th overall pick of this June's draft. Good times ahead for Snake fans. The Blue Jays' "college players or death" approach to the draft clearly isn't working. They've picked in the upper half (or thereabouts) of the first round in every draft since J.P. Ricciardi took over as GM, yet they have the worst farm system in the AL and haven't graduated any high-ceiling talents to the major leagues. It's time for a more diverse approach. And that's a wrap on your top 100 prospects for 2006. Dayn Perry is a frequent contributor to FOXSports.com and author of the new book, "Winners: How Good Baseball Teams Become Great Ones" (Available now at Amazon.com).